Arrays of atoms trapped in optical lattices are appealing as storage media for photons, since motional dephasing of the atoms is eliminated. The regular lattice is also associated with band structure in the dispersion experienced by incident photons. Here we study the influence of this band structure on the efficiency of quantum memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and on Raman absorption. We observe a number of interesting effects, such as both reduced and superluminal group velocities, enhanced atom-photon coupling and anomalous transmission. These effects are ultimately deleterious to the memory efficiency, but they are easily avoided by tuning the optical fields away from the band edges.
Quantum optimal control problems are typically solved by gradient-based algorithms such as GRAPE, which suffer from exponential growth in storage with increasing number of qubits and linear growth in memory requirements with increasing number of time steps. Employing QOC for discrete lattices reveals that these memory requirements are a barrier for simulating large models or long time spans. We employ a nonstandard differentiable programming approach that significantly reduces the memory requirements at the cost of a reasonable amount of recomputation. The approach exploits invertibility prope…
A new scheme of photon echo based quantum memory in the optimal optical QED cavity with off-resonant Raman atomic transition is proposed. The scheme employs the atomic ensembles characterized by an optically thin resonant transition and natural inhomogeneous broadening of the resonant line composed of the arbitrary narrow homogeneous spectral components. The scheme provides robust and quite simple coherent control of the light-atoms dynamics that can be implemented by using an existing optical technique and opens a practical way for realization of the efficient long-lived multi-mode optical qu…
Proposals for quantum information processing often require the development of new quantum tech- nologies. However, here we build quantum memory by ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices with existing state-of-the-art technology. Under a parabolic external field, we demonstrate that an arbitrary initial state at an end of the optical lattices can time-evolve and revive, with very high fidelity, at predictable discrete time intervals. Physically, the parabolic field, can catalyze a breathing pattern. The initial state is memorized by the pattern and can be retrieved at any of the re…
The T centre, a silicon-native spin-photon interface with telecommunications-band optical transitions and long-lived microwave qubits, offers an appealing new platform for both optical quantum memory and microwave to optical telecommunications band transduction. A wide range of quantum memory and transduction schemes could be implemented on such a platform, with advantages and disadvantages that depend sensitively on the ensemble properties. In this work we characterize T centre spin ensembles to inform device design. We perform the first T ensemble optical depth measurement and calculate the …
Photon echo schemes are excellent candidates for high efficiency coherent optical memory. They are capable of high-bandwidth multi-pulse storage, pulse resequencing and have been shown theoretically to be compatible with quantum information applications. One particular photon echo scheme is the gradient echo memory (GEM). In this system, an atomic frequency gradient is induced in the direction of light propagation leading to a Fourier decomposition of the optical spectrum along the length of the storage medium. This Fourier encoding allows precision spectral manipulation of the stored light. I…
Quantum memory is an important component in the long-distance quantum communication system based on the quantum repeater protocol. To outperform the direct transmission of photons with quantum repeaters, it is crucial to develop quantum memories with high fidelity, high efficiency and a long storage time. Here, we achieve a storage efficiency of 92.0(1.5)\% for a coherent optical memory based on the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) scheme in optically dense cold atomic media. We also obtain a useful time-bandwidth product of 1200, considering only storage where the retrieval effi…
We demonstrate that a photon echo can be implemented by all-optical means using an array of on-chip high-finesse ring cavities whose parameters are chirped in such a way as to support equidistant spectra of cavity modes. When launched into such a system, a classical or quantum optical signal -- even a single-photon field -- becomes distributed between individual cavities, giving rise to prominent coherence echo revivals at well-defined delay times, controlled by the chirp of cavity parameters. This effect enables long storage times for high-throughput broadband optical delay and quantum memory…
Quantum memory is important to quantum information processing in many ways: a synchronization device to match various processes within a quantum computer, an identity quantum gate that leaves any state unchanged, and a tool to convert heralded photons to photons-on-demand. In addition to quantum computing, quantum memory would be instrumental for the implementation of long-distance quantum communication using quantum repeaters. The importance of this basic quantum gate is exemplified by the multitude of optical quantum memory mechanisms being studied: optical delay lines, cavities, electromagn…
The ability to efficiently realize storage and readout of optical squeezed states plays a key roll in continuous-variables quantum information processing. Here we study the quantum memory (QM) for squeezed state of propagating light in atoms based on the hybrid photon echo re-phasing (HYPER). The optical quantum state is recorded in two sublevels of the ground state of an atomic ensemble to realize long-lived QM. Taking into account the noise effect due to atomic decay, our estimation indicates that, with currently available technique, high fidelities larger than the classical fidelity thresho…
Quantum memory is the core device for the construction of large-scale quantum networks. For scalable and convenient practical applications, integrated optical memories, especially on-chip optical memories, are crucial requirements because they can be easily integrated with other on-chip devices. Here, we report the coherent optical memory based on a type-IV waveguide fabricated on the surface of a rare-earth ion-doped crystal (i.e. $\mathrm{Eu^{3+}}$:$\mathrm{Y_2SiO_5}$). The properties of the optical transition ($\mathrm{{^7}F{_0}\rightarrow{^5}D{_0}}$) of the $\mathrm{Eu^{3+}}$ ions inside t…
We review a series of quantum memory protocols designed to store the quantum information carried by light into atomic ensembles. In particular, we show how a simple semiclassical formalism allows to gain insight into various memory protocols and to highlight strong analogies between them. These analogies naturally lead to a classification of light storage protocols into two categories, namely photon echo and slow-light memories. We focus on the storage and retrieval dynamics as a key step to map the optical information into the atomic excitation. We finally review various criteria adapted for …
We report the experimental demonstration of a quantum memory for collective atomic states in a far-detuned optical dipole trap. Generation of the collective atomic state is heralded by the detection of a Raman scattered photon and accompanied by storage in the ensemble of atoms. The optical dipole trap provides confinement for the atoms during the quantum storage while retaining the atomic coherence. We probe the quantum storage by cross-correlation of the photon pair arising from the Raman scattering and the retrieval of the atomic state stored in the memory. Non-classical correlations are ob…
We report on the experimental demonstration of an optical spin-wave memory, based on the atomic frequency comb (AFC) scheme, where the storage efficiency is strongly enhanced by an optical cavity. The cavity is of low finesse, but operated in an impedance matching regime to achieve high absorption in our intrinsically low-absorbing Eu3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. For storage of optical pulses as an optical excitation (AFC echoes), we reach efficiencies of 53% and 28% for 2 and 10 microseconds delays, respectively. For a complete AFC spin-wave memory we reach an efficiency of 12%, including spin-wave deph…
Optical quantum memory is an essential element for long distance quantum communication and photonic quantum computation protocols. The practical implementation of such protocols requires an efficient quantum memory with long coherence time. Beating the no-cloning limit, for example, requires efficiencies above 50\%. An ideal optical fibre loop has a loss of 50% in 100 $μ$ s, and until now no universal quantum memory has beaten this time-efficiency limit. Here, we report results of a gradient echo memory (GEM) experiment in a cold atomic ensemble with a 1/e coherence time up to 1ms and maximum …
The ability to coherently spectrally manipulate quantum information has the potential to improve qubit rates across quantum channels and find applications in optical quantum computing. In this paper we present experiments that use a multi-element solenoid combined with the three-level gradient echo memory scheme to perform precision spectral manipulation of optical pulses. These operations include bandwidth and frequency manipulation, spectral filtering of separate frequency components, as well as time-delayed interference between pulses with both the same, and different, frequencies. These op…
We report an optical memory in a rare earth doped crystal with long storage times, up to 20 ms, together with an optical bandwidth of 1.5 MHz. This is obtained by transferring optical coherences to nuclear spin coherences, which were then protected against environmental noise by dynamical decoupling. With this approach, we achieved a 33 fold increase in spin wave storage time over the intrinsic spin coherence lifetime. Comparison between different decoupling sequences indicates that sequences insensitive to initial spin coherence increase retrieval efficiency. Finally, an interference experime…
We give a scheme for loss tolerantly building a linear optical quantum memory which itself is tolerant to qubit loss. We use the encoding recently introduced in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 120501, (2006)] and give a method for efficiently achieving this. The entire approach resides within the "One-way" model for quantum computing. Our results suggest that it is possible to build a loss tolerant quantum memory, such that if the requirement is to keep the data stored over arbitrarily long times then this is possible with only polynomially increasing resources and logarithmically increasing individual …
We investigate an optical quantum memory scheme with V-type three-level atoms based on the controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening (CRIB) technique. We theoretically show the possibility to store and retrieve a weak light pulse interacting with the two optical transitions of the system. This scheme implements a quantum memory for a polarization qubit - a single photon in an arbitrary polarization state - without the need of two spatially separated two-level media, thus offering the advantage of experimental compactness overcoming the limitations due to mismatching and unequal efficienci…
A scheme for backward retrieval in optical quantum memories in which information is stored in collective states of an extended resonant atomic ensemble is developed such that phase conjugation can be implemented by application of an external nonuniform electric (magnetic) field without use of coherent exciting pulses. The possibilities of realizing such a scheme using resonant solid-state materials are discussed.
We provide an exact analytic description of decelerating, stopping and re-accelerating optical solitons in atomic media. By virtue of this solution we describe in detail how spatially localized optical memory bits can be written down, read and moved along the atomic medium in a prescribed manner. Dynamical control over the solitons is realized via a background laser field whose intensity controls the velocity of the slow light in a similar way as in the linear theory of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We solve the nonlinear model when the controlling field and the solitons inte…
We theoretically studied the implementation of a quantum memory and an optical transistor in a system composed by a single atom trapped inside a high finesse cavity. In order to store and map the quantum state of an input pulse onto internal states of the single atom (quantum memory) we employ the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) phenomenon (which can work out as an optical transistor) where the information can be transferred to the dark state of the atom modelled by a three-level system in a Λ-type configuration. In our model we consider a suitable temporal shape for the control…
A method of synthesizing localized optical fields with zeroes on a periodic lattice is analyzed. The applicability to addressing atoms trapped in optical lattices with low crosstalk is discussed.
When photons are sent through a fiber as part of a quantum communication protocol, the error that is most difficult to correct is photon loss. Here, we propose and analyze a two-to-four qubit encoding scheme, which can recover the loss of one qubit in the transmission. This device acts as a repeater when it is placed in series to cover a distance larger than the attenuation length of the fiber, and it acts as an optical quantum memory when it is inserted in a fiber loop. We call this dual-purpose device a ``quantum transponder.''
Successful implementation of several quantum information and communication protocols require distributing entangled pairs of quantum bits in reliable manner. While there exists a substantial amount of recent theoretical and experimental activities dealing with non-Markovian quantum dynamics, experimental application and verification of the usefulness of memory-effects for quantum information tasks is still missing. We combine these two aspects and show experimentally that a recently introduced concept of nonlocal memory effects allows to protect and distribute polarization entangled pairs of p…
Lattices are very important objects in the effort to construct cryptographic primitives that are secure against quantum attacks. A central problem in the study of lattices is that of finding the shortest non-zero vector in the lattice. Asymptotically, sieving is the best known technique for solving the shortest vector problem, however, sieving requires memory exponential in the dimension of the lattice. As a consequence, enumeration algorithms are often used in place of sieving due to their linear memory complexity, despite their super-exponential runtime. In this work, we present a heuristic …
The ability to store large amounts of photonic quantum states is regarded as substantial for future optical quantum computation and communication technologies. However, research for multiplexed quantum memories has been focused on systems that show good performance only after an elaborate preparation of the storage media. This makes it generally more difficult to apply outside a laboratory environment. In this work, we demonstrate a multiplexed random-access memory to store up to four optical pulses using electromagnetically induced transparency in warm cesium vapor. Using a Λ-System on the hy…
The implementation of polarization-based quantum communication is limited by signal loss and decoherence caused by the birefringence of a single-mode fiber. We investigate the Knill dynamical decoupling scheme, implemented using half-wave plates, to minimize decoherence and show that a fidelity greater than $99\%$ can be achieved in absence of rotation error and fidelity greater than $96\%$ can be achieved in presence of rotation error. Such a scheme can be used to preserve any quantum state with high fidelity and has potential application for constructing all optical quantum delay line, quant…
We demonstrate a novel experimental arrangement which rotates a 2D optical lattice at frequencies up to several kilohertz. Ultracold atoms in such a rotating lattice can be used for the direct quantum simulation of strongly correlated systems under large effective magnetic fields, allowing investigation of phenomena such as the fractional quantum Hall effect. Our arrangement also allows the periodicity of a 2D optical lattice to be varied dynamically, producing a 2D accordion lattice.
We report on the storage of light via the phenomenon of recoil-induced resonance in a pure two- level system of cold cesium atoms. We use a strong coupling beam and a weak probe beam to couple different external momentum states of the cesium atom via two-photon Raman interaction which leads to the storage of the optical information of the probe beam. We have also measured the probe transmission spectrum, as well as the light storage spectrum which reveals very narrow subnatural resonance features showing absorption and gain. We have demonstrated that this memory presents the unique property of…
A classical realization of the two-site Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, based on light transport in engineered optical waveguide lattices, is theoretically proposed. The optical lattice enables a direct visualization of the Bose-Hubbard dynamics in Fock space.
Quantum memories with long storage times are key elements in long-distance quantum networks. The atomic frequency comb (AFC) memory in particular has shown great promise to fulfill this role, having demonstrated multimode capacity and spin-photon quantum correlations. However, the memory storage times have so-far been limited to about one millisecond, realized in a Eu${}^{3+}$ doped Y${}_2$SiO${}_5$ crystal at zero applied magnetic field. Motivated by studies showing increased spin coherence times under applied magnetic field, we developed a AFC spin-wave memory utilizing a weak 15 mT magnetic…
We present a quantum interference approach to preserve coherence in the external states of an atom trapped in an optical lattice. We show that this is possible by suitably choosing the initial state of the atom. We demonstrate this in context of decoherence due to spontaneous emission in an one-dimensional optical double-well lattice.
Memory effects can lead to history-dependent behavior of a system, and they are ubiquitous in our daily life and have broad applications. Here we explore possibilities of generating memory effects in simple isolated quantum systems. By utilizing geometrical effects from a class of lattices supporting flat-bands consisting of localized states, memory effects could be observed in ultracold atoms in optical lattices. As the optical lattice continuously transforms from a triangular lattice into a kagome lattice with a flat band, history-dependent density distributions manifest quantum memory effec…
By harnessing aspects of quantum mechanics, communication and information processing could be radically transformed. Promising forms of quantum information technology include optical quantum cryptographic systems and computing using photons for quantum logic operations. As with current information processing systems, some form of memory will be required. Quantum repeaters, which are required for long distance quantum key distribution, require optical memory as do deterministic logic gates for optical quantum computing. In this paper we present results from a coherent optical memory based on wa…
We study the bandwidth and multiplexing capacity of an erbium-doped optical memory for quantum storage purposes. We concentrate on the protocol ROSE (Revival of a Silenced Echo) because it has the largest potential multiplexing capacity. Our analysis is applicable to other protocols that involve strong optical excitation. We show that the memory performance is limited by instantaneous spectral diffusion and we describe how this effect can be minimised to achieve optimal performance.
Photon loss in optical fibers prevents long-distance distribution of quantum information on the ground. Quantum repeater is proposed to overcome this problem, but the communication distance is still limited so far because of the system complexity of the quantum repeater scheme. Alternative solutions include transportable quantum memory and quantum-memory-equipped satellites, where long-lived optical quantum memories are the key components to realize global quantum communication. However, the longest storage time of the optical memories demonstrated so far is approximately 1 minute. Here, by em…
Long-distance quantum communication through optical fibers is currently limited to a few hundreds of kilometres due to fiber losses. Quantum repeaters could extend this limit to continental distances. Most approaches to quantum repeaters require highly multimode quantum memories in order to reach high communication rates. The atomic frequency comb memory scheme can in principle achieve high temporal multimode storage, without sacrificing memory efficiency. However, previous demonstrations have been hampered by the difficulty of creating high-resolution atomic combs, which reduces the efficienc…
We introduce a scheme for the parallel storage of frequency separated signals in an optical memory and demonstrate that this dual-rail storage is a suitable memory for high fidelity frequency qubits. The two signals are stored simultaneously in the Zeeman-split Raman absorption lines of a cold atom ensemble using gradient echo memory techniques. Analysis of the split-Zeeman storage shows that the memory can be configured to preserve the relative amplitude and phase of the frequency separated signals. In an experimental demonstration dual-frequency pulses are recalled with 35% efficiency, 82% i…
A Bose-Einstein condensate confined in an optical dipole trap is used to generate long-term coherent memory for light, and storage times of more than one second are observed. Phase coherence of the condensate as well as controlled manipulations of elastic and inelastic atomic scattering processes are utilized to increase the storage fidelity by several orders of magnitude over previous schemes. The results have important applications for creation of long-distance quantum networks and for generation of entangled states of light and matter.
Quantum memories are an integral component of quantum repeaters - devices that will allow the extension of quantum key distribution to communication ranges beyond that permissible by passive transmission. A quantum memory for this application needs to be highly efficient and have coherence times approaching a millisecond. Here we report on work towards this goal, with the development of a $^{87}$Rb magneto-optical trap with a peak optical depth of 1000 for the D2 $F=2 \rightarrow F'=3$ transition using spatial and temporal dark spots. With this purpose-built cold atomic ensemble to implement t…
We report on the first realization of an integrated optical memory for light based on a laser written waveguide in a doped crystal. Using femto-second laser micromachining, we fabricate waveguides in Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal. We demonstrate that the waveguide inscription does not affect the coherence properties of the material and that the light confinement in the waveguide increases the interaction with the active ions by a factor 6. We also demonstrate that, analogously to the bulk crystals, we can operate the optical pumping protocols necessary to prepare the population in atomic freq…
We investigate a system of fermions trapped in a quasi-periodic potential from an open quantum system theory perspective, designing a protocol in which an impurity atom (a two level system) is coupled to a trapped fermionic cloud described by the non-interacting Aubry-André model. The Fermi system is prepared in a charge density wave state before it starts its relaxation. In this work we focus our attention on the time evolution of the impurity in such an out of equilibrium environment, and study whether the induced dynamics can be classified as Markovian or non-Markovian. We find how the loca…
The efficient storage and on-demand retrieval of quantum optical states that are compatible with the telecommunications C-band is a requirement for future terrestrial-based quantum optical networking. Spectrum in the C-band minimises optical fiber-propagation losses, and broad optical bandwidth facilitates high-speed networking protocols. Here we report on a telecommunication wavelength and bandwidth compatible quantum memory. Using the Off-Resonant Cascaded Absorption protocol in hot $^{87}$Rb vapour, we demonstrate a total memory efficiency of $20.90(1)\,\%$ with a Doppler-limited storage ti…
We establish the theoretical feasibility of direct analog simulation of the compact U(1) lattice gauge theories in optical lattices with dipolar bosons. We discuss the realizability of the topological Coulomb phase in extended Bose-Hubbard models in several optical lattice geometries. We predict the testable signatures of this emergent phase in noise correlation measurements, thus suggesting the possible emergence of artificial light in optical lattices.
In the present paper we shall study (2+1) dimensional Z_N gauge theories on a lattice. It is shown that the gauge theories have two phases, one is a Higgs phase and the other is a confinement phase. We investigate low-energy excitation modes in the Higgs phase and clarify relationship between the Z_N gauge theories and Kitaev's model for quantum memory and quantum computations. Then we study effects of random gauge couplings(RGC) which are identified with noise and errors in quantum computations by Kitaev's model. By using a duality transformation, it is shown that time-independent RGC give no…
We show that simple laser configurations can give rise to "optical flux lattices", in which optically dressed atoms experience a periodic effective magnetic flux with high mean density. These potentials lead to narrow energy bands with non-zero Chern number. Optical flux lattices will greatly facilitate the achievement of the quantum Hall regime for ultracold atomic gases.
Light storage in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is one of the most practical usage of these coherent atom-optical systems. In order to make them even more practical, it is necessary to enhance our ability to inject multiple pulses into the condensate. In this paper, we report that dispersion of pulses injected into the condensate can be compensated by optical nonlinearity. In addition, we will present a brief review of our earlier results in which enhancement of light storage capacity is accomplished by utilizing multi-mode light propagation or choosing an optimal set of experimental param…
